Is the world, or rather Europe going soft, or mad, or both? I know the Greek people are suffering right now, but they only have themselves to blame for frittering away cash like it was water pouring down a drain. The public sector in Greece before the economic crash in autumn 2008 was hugely over-manned, and the wages paid and especially the bonus culture that grew up within it wasted millions and millions of Euros. Now they are paying the price. Only thing is it the general public, the ordinary Joe on the street that is having to carry the can, and he doesn’t like it one bit. Stringent cuts and austerity measures have yet again caused rioting on the streets of Athens, and low and behold the European Union caved in for a second time and provided a second bail out fund in the region of 110 million dollars. The Greeks have even started to pay back the first bail out they got last year, so how on earth are they going to cover the second one? All this of course is related to the unstable future of the Euro currency. There seems to be no get out clause inbuilt into the system, so if one country fails the whole lot comes tumbling down. Clever eh? From my point of view here in the UK, thank our lucky stars that we didn’t join the Euro, otherwise we would be facing huge problems and riots on the streets of London too; the British do like the odd riot now and again ;)
There is so much going on the Greek transit chart (above) at the moment it is difficult to know where to start. Let’s start off with transiting Saturn which is still grinding it’s way through the Greek 4th house, the foundation of the nation. This is where the people oppose the government, so during this 2 year transit of Saturn, there were always going to be problems and unrest. The square to the Sun in the Greek first house is elongated because of Saturn’s retrograde period and Saturn is not going to clear through this square and the 4th house until autumn this year. There are going to be a lot of unhappy people in Greece and much hardship through most of 2012.
The rioting is because of Uranus. Uranus squares Venus (it is over money and finances), trines the Sun (is directed towards the leaders) and opposes Pluto and the Moon so is destructive, damaging and wanting change (Pluto) and agitates the people (Moon) to get up and rebel. There is a second story here. Aquarius rules the 8th and 9th houses, the house of incurred losses and other people’s money (8th) and overseas travel & foreign relations (9th); Pluto rules the 5th (risk taking). We can see the agreement of more cash (Venus) at an overseas meeting (9th) as a bit of a gamble (5th) to support the country (1st) so it doesn’t go under.
Transiting Mars moving retrograde is now square the nodal axis so there is violence and out of the blue public (Node) events that the police and authorities are having trouble in controlling. When Mars moves retrograde I have noticed that the organisation and ability of people to control any trouble is not easy to do, and often situations can get out of hand and casualties can mount up. The energy is not being efficiently used here, and the sporadic nature of Mars retrograde is difficult to control. This is compounded by Neptune which is opposing Greece’s natal Mars. This shows confusion of the authority forces as well as the collective mobs of rioters appearing from nowhere then drifting away. Trying to control anything when Neptune is involved is futile. In truth, the rioters will tend to have the edge over the authorities until Mars gets back moving forward in mid April and Neptune moves out of range in opposition to that natal Mars. Incidentally with Pisces ruling the Midheaven we always knew from the formation of the chart in 1974 that progressive Greek governments would be weak and/or deceptive and with their collective hands also in the cookie jar.
This isn’t going to get sorted out until Pluto makes an opposition to the Greek ascendant at 13 Cancer in 2014. That moment will be an important watershed in the future of Greece. Right now, Pluto moving through the 6th house of the ordinary workers and social and public services opposing Saturn and Mercury in the 12th house of suffering and sacrifice. Yes, there are a lot of sacrifices that are having to be suffered by the man in the street as well as the government (Saturn) and the public services (6th) which are going to be transformed by Pluto. The cuts are going to continue to hurt like crazy. The world and the Euro members in particular will watch and wait with baited breath. The fate of Greece could well affect the fate of the European Union, and the ailing health of the world money markets.